Four Days? Really?

I was at Kelly Hall's blog and I was going down her blog roll because I figured out how to change my favicon (:)) and saw that I hadn't blogged on my board since Monday. Really? I've been online plenty. Mostly pinterest and blogs. And I worked on dolphins and Sonoran Desert and today plan (fingers crossed) on starting giraffes after cleaning the house a bit. One of the cutest things I found were the printable iPhones, iPads, and iPods for spelling work. I have a student that received his iPad last year in first grade ( I don't have one. Why does a six year old need one? How come they have cooler tech than I do?) and he would be thrilled to show off skills on a fake appliance. Find them at Mrs. Bremer's Kindergarten.
Link to all three printable i-devices

My daughter is growing up. She had made some comments before we left for Target that let me know it was probably time. She's turning ten and heading off to middle school in the fall, but I didn't want it to happen. She helped me purchase some things in the holiday section of Target. Sorry for being somewhat cryptic, but I don't know if your children ever read over your shoulder. And December she will be ready to help me find great items for her younger family members.  Maybe a few more years with my son? I know I'll miss the magic of joy and amazement.

I think I am getting a blog makeover. It makes me nervous  to give up control but it will probably turn out just fine. I figured out this year that that is why I/teachers don't like field trips. We have to give up control and trust that someone will make the right/constructive/positive choices for the growth and development of something we love. I have three designers in mind, but would LOVE to hear your suggestions.


My new word to mistype is because. I have been typing becasue for the last few weeks. I wonder if one of my fingers is getting info from my brain faster than the other side? My classic is hte for the. I need to sssslllooooowww down and concentrate.

April's Currently

This my first Currently. I'm not sure how much explanation they should get.

My husband is at work, my daughter is still sleeping, and my son is away in DE for a few days with a friend. No TV, radio, or game system in earshot. Ahhh!

Pinterest is a problem. It goes on forever. Everyone likes really cool ideas and I want to find even more cool ideas. Which leads me to my thinking.

I'm spending way too much time on the computer and not enough time moving. My body can tell.

I want to get ahead. If I can get ahead, I can breathe and tackle what I need to do... the box and piles of papers. I do a pretty good job with tests, quizzes, and easy to check papers, but papers with longer answers take more time. And I've put away some of my reading materials in the correct folders and binders but not all. But a little tiny voice inthe back of my head is telling me the principal is moving me to another grade because I swear she was looking right at me.

My chocolate eggs are awesome. Every egg that left my house is sold. My two kids bring their money to buy my eggs from church becasue I will not give them any freebies. They are that good. And since they are sold out, I have to make more for Easter baskets.

Now it's time to get to work. I started working on place value yesterday, it might be done later this week. When we get back from break, we are adding and subtracting tens and hundreds and comparing and ordering three digit numbers. I wonder what I'll come up with.

Sorry for my Blog Manners but I'm Joining Some Linky Parties

I already posted. Sorry. I am posting again. Please forgive my bad manners. I am joining a linky party.

My contribution is Buzzing Blooms a long i game for more expereinced readers. They need to read the words and decide if they say the long i sound like the spelling suggests.  Good for advanced first graders, and all second and third graders.

download Buzzing Blooms here


I am also finally getting around to joining the K-2 world linky party hosted by Jeannie at Kindergarten Lifestyle. Better late than never.

Have You Checked Out Mathwire?

Now I might be late to this party, but you are all invited. I found mathwire through some pinterest boards and I've been there for about an hour. It has a collection of games and activities organized by standards and grade levels, and seasonal ideas as well. Several of the ideas cover multiple standards, so you can get extras bang for your ...I was going to say buck but it's free.
Some of my favorites to get you interested

• m & m probability game works on addition

I Have cards for 2 x 4 labels in place value, money, and operations

templates for repeated practice, laminate or place in communicator sleeves


I am on break. Even better, my big Easter fair was this morning and it is over. My church is small and for us to open up to the community and have 25-30 children participating in an an event requires planning and support. We made Easter bunnies using styrofoam balls, pipe cleaners, pompoms, and wiggle eyes, birds nests using brown paper bags, craft glue, sticks, and Spanish moss, decorated eggs using crayons on warm eggs (back to that in a minute) and sticky flowers with tissue paper squares
(pictures soon).  We hid over 1,016 eggs and had to give the kids second baskets since several of them had over 80 eggs! Hotdogs and sloppy joes inside, then sack races, parachute games, and hula hoop games outside.
Back to the eggs. Crayon wax melts GREAT on hot eggs from water that had been near boiling. Boiled eggs in a crockpot on high was not hot enough to melt the wax. Teacher minds unite-- how can I keep the eggs really hot without keeping them on the stove in boiling water?  This might also be good for big river rocks to get decorated for paperweights. The wax would wash off in a garden environment, but there have to be other uses for crayons at this winding down time of the year.


I am looking forward to calmly planning/ grading /cleaning/ blogging/ pinboard surfing /laundry:(/relaxing? over the next week.

TBA is almost one year old so they are having a giveaway. Go over and enter.
http://www.teachingblogaddict.com/2012/03/celebrating-tbas-1st-birthday-with.html#more

The Talk

We had the Talk today. 3:00 everyone was called to the media center.
Next year we are down a second grade ( my grade) and up one first and one third.
So anyone that wants to retire or transfer had better speak up now.
One of my teammates kinda volunteered to move up or down. She hasn't been holding on to things this year and getting them organized.
We spoke up for my amazing student teacher from last year. And a current long-term sub.
The principal will let us know who she is moving after spring break.
I don't want to switch again yet.
Is your staff pretty settled, or do you get moved to promote your growth?  After many years in third grade, I didn't want to teach the same stories one more year. I was ready for a switch. I wasn't done fifth grade when I was moved. I do not want to switch unitl I've had at least one year of reteaching a math or reading program. Is that lazy?
Hopefully I do not have to post about this after spring break.

One kid had his meds refilled. Today was WAY better than yesterday. Everyone went home on green and I didn't have a headache. Happy teacher.

Hunger Games

Just got back from the movies. My daughter and her fifth grade friend were slightly disappointed because they wanted more details from the book in the movie. My husband was trying to explain that they couldn't tell every detail but they need to get the key points across. My second grade son laughed at the kissing and covered his eyes and held my hand for the dog scene.  He hopes to be able to read book 1 and 2 before the second movie comes out. And it is also set up for elements of the third book to be turned into a movie. I wonder how much they will make this weekend.

Spring is in the Air

We're going on our field trip tomorrow, which means lots of parent visitors in the building. I convinced my teammates to take down Seuss day projects for two reasons.
1. We're a bit past his birthday.
2. I wanted to hog the wall!
Our current unit in Treasures is Growing and Changing., and I wanted to do something spring-y.  We've been noticing so much academic growth lately that I wanted the kids to get a chance to show off how they have changed. I can't type too much longer because I am so excited.

I dragged my two children to the grocery story at 6:50 am (we're an early school) to buy the cupcake liners for the middle of the daffodils.The petals each tell a growth or change, and the flowers are taped on the wall to show the child's actual height.
I'm getting ready to put the organizer and printables together. Look for this as a freebie in the stores later tonight!